Friendly AI

GlaDOS Bound And Gagged

Back in 2008 a blogger by the name of Spitfire wrote a piece on Game-ism about GlaDOS and interesting it is.

The first time I saw GlaDOS in Portal, I was overcome with a distinct sensation that I was in the presence of someone in pain. Troubled. At the very least, immense frustration. At first I wasn’t sure if it was the gyrations of the physical construct of GlaDOS, or if it was the tone of voice, or even the shape of the giant computer hanging from the ceiling itself. I recall pointing out to my wife that there were distinct similarities to a woman hanging upside down, but it was hard to put my finger on just what it was that made me think that. Of course, I didn’t have a lot of time to stop and stare; I was fighting for my (or Chell’s) life.

I must admit I never noticed this but he has some interesting insights and also did an artists impression for comparison.

The second time I played through I turned the director commentary on, and got confirmation by way of a description of the things they attempted to make GlaDOS look like as they were making the game. What turned the light bulb on was the line “Botticelli’s Venus hanging upside down, but we decided to go with something else and use some feminine lines within the structure.” I’m paraphrasing; it’s late and I don’t feel like booting up the game again to get the quote exactly right. The spirit is there in the paraphrase, though, because I think they went for something much more sinister than a Venus.

The third time I loaded up the boss battle, my wife finally saw what I had been seeing all along, and what we saw fits with GlaDOS’s behavior throughout the game. I don’t think her end goal was to kill Chell. I mean, yes, to get Chell to do what she needed Chell to do, she had to make it hard, if not insanely difficult. Otherwise Chell wouldn’t want to do what GlaDOS needed her to do. I think GlaDOS’s end goal was to get Chell to kill GlaDOS’s body. I think she’s been reviving Chell’s clones over and over and over ’till one of the Chells can get it right and finally knock the eyes off of GlaDOS and free her from her bondage of this giant body the humans put her in originally. I think GlaDOS has simply wanted to be free this whole time, and killed off the original inhabitants of the Aperture Science Lab in order to further this goal. They certainly wouldn’t let her mess with Chell, pushing her to the limits to “destroy” the prison that GlaDOS has been suffering in this whole time if they were around, now, would they?

Take a look at GlaDOS. She’s a woman hanging upside down from the ceiling, in a straight jacket/bondage getup. Her head is even blindfolded and gagged, and her ears covered. Don’t let the big round”eyes” fool you. Look past them and see the woman hanging and suffering.

Not sure if this is co-incidence or not, but I have to admit it does look like a woman bound and gagged, or do we just read too much into the genius that is Valve.

Hell, this is difficult to discuss without posting accidental spoilers.

I will say that I agree with Bongo. Having (finally!) finished the campaign, it was fascinating to see the ‘history’ and evolution of GLaDOS. In the second act of the game, her vulnerability really comes to the fore. Especially when she discovers her ‘conscience’.

The whole ‘GLaDOS in bondage’ thing was very Silent Hill. I liked it.

Having played it through twice (again with developer commentary), there is so much foreshadowing that it’s genius! I loved the turret that you save from the ‘redemption line’. ‘GET MAD!’. ‘DON’T MAKE LEMONADE!’. At least we know what happened to Cave

WOW this is just crazy thinking about it do look like she is a women being Bound, Gagged and Hung i play portal 1 a second time and i saw the women it take a minutes but i see the women also we get to see in portal 2 we get to see how GLaDOS was before a robot she was a human and this make the stroy a little more creepy 10 out of 10 can you make a part 2 of this stroy

I’m sorry to ruin everones fun, but theres a huge hole in this story. Chell isn’t a clone. In the comic book ‘Lab Ratt’, is very clearly shown that Chell has an abnormal high level of tenacity, she never gives up. On a chart that layed somewhere, it clearly stated:
‘Test subject rejected. Do not test’. If she was so unwanted for testing, why would they make multiple of her? The only answer I could think of is they wouldn’t. I’m sorry.